needed info to start scuba club

[LoCoDiver]

let me start by wishing everyone a happy and safe new year .

and now to subject at hand i am a new york city union carpenter and am interested in starting a dive club for carpenters i need information on ins and outs and all that legal yatta yatta stuff for a successful club thanks to everyone and their help in this matter once agian have a safe and happy year to come dive safe and play hard :smash:

 

[Dee]

For all that legal stuff, you probably should contact a local lawyer. Alot depends on what sort of club you want. If you are going to have club sponsored dives, you'll need a waiver of responsibility.

If you want a very structured club with officers, board of directors, members at large, etc. you'll have to have a strict set of by-laws. You'll need a location(s) for your monthly club meetings and for board of directors meetings. A program each month to keep your members interested, door prizes, raffles or drawings are fun, a continuing project such as a yearly photo contest is usually a good one if you have photographers.

A more casual approach is desired by some, such as we have with the Texas Swamp Diving Team. Our main goal is to dive. We don't want to attend meetings other than those that take place next to the water, none of us want to be In Charge so we take turns planning things.

So see...you can have a club on both ends of the spectrum. I would start by deciding what kind of club you want and go from there.

 

[art.chick]

I am in a similar position. There is a group of divers who have all graduated fromt eh same program who all have the same habits and want to dive together. Release forms are crucial. I am trying to get a copy of a release form from a local shop to reproduce with our club name. There is a IATSE local out here that has a dive club. I do not recall which local (I am IATSE & I know it is not mine). I think that is a very cool idea & wish you all the success with it. If you prefer to keep things very loose like in the above post, check our Sandeaters.org to see how they manage a very unstructured "club." Liability issues are undermining many shop-based clubs now.